jeff74

We just got off the ship on Tuesday and I agree that it was in great shape. Maybe a weird thing to say but I thought the automatic hand washing machine at the Lido buffet was pretty cool lol. Along more normal lines I liked that the casino was non smoking and that the aft decks on 6 and 7 were so quiet and a nice place to relax since we didn’t have a balcony with our room this time.

I’ve always liked pre purchasing casino chips just because I avoid having to worry about carrying the cash around pre-cruise. I wasn’t aware that there was no surcharge for buying chips and having it billed to the onboard account while you’re on the cruise. That’s a lot better than other cruise lines that charge 5%. Kurtmi03, I’m glad to hear your AC problem got resolved. Ours is struggling but has been able to keep the temp at what I would guess to be 76 at the coldest setting. My wife wouldn’t want to switch rooms anyway because she is generally cold and if we moved to one with better AC we would be arguing over the thermostat 😃. My mom actually has the opposite problem with her room being colder than ours despite being at the hottest setting. I feel bad for a couple I was talking to earlier today. They have a leak from their ceiling that has been there for who knows how long since they said their room has mold and smells like dead fish.

The charges for Canaletto were reversed last night. Now I’m just down to needing the OBC fixed. I’ve already shown them the screen shot of my itinerary with the purchase and have sent a note in the “let us know” section of the app so I’ll wait until our next sea day before bothering anyone at guest services again. On a different topic for anyone interested, I was told by one of the onboard medical staff yesterday afternoon that they had 3 known cases of Covid onboard (roughly 48 hours after the start of the cruise). As far as everything else is concerned, the cruise is going fairly well. Random thoughts and observations: I wish that I was down a bit less at the casino lol. The first bingo event and the library have drawn decent crowds but otherwise you don’t really notice that the ship is close to full occupancy. We liked the comedian on the second night. My mom and mother in law have been spending a lot of time at the Effy store much to the delight of the manager there. We’re staying in and ocean view room in the aft of the Dolphin deck and the engine noise and vibrations that happen when docking and leaving haven’t been a bother to us but we did notice a strong fuel smell when leaving Half Moon Cay. That’s it for now for the updates. Curaçao is our stop for today and my wife, son and I will be exploring on our own since there weren’t any excursions that looked particularly appealing. It’s a late arrival time and we’re docked from 3pm to midnight so that should limit the amount of financial hemorrhaging that has occurred around the deck 5 midship area for today at least.

Thanks for the tip on putting a comment in the app. I went ahead and took your advice. Along with the Cannelo double charge I forgot that I’m still missing some OBC. The total amount I’m still out of pocket is close to $100 but I have to admit I’ve already been doing the math of how much my time is worth to me since these 30-45 minute stretchs of standing in line at guest services have been annoying. I’ll try to go at an “off peak” time if needed going forward.

Good news… The casino manager saw me and said that they got an email that the rest of the chips were available. I also saw on my statement that the credit for my wife’s spa appointment appeared in the past couple of hours. We only have the issue with getting charged again last night’s specialty dinner remaining but I consider this a win from where everything stood this am.

No resolution as of yet on the casino chips. The issue was that in addition to there not being a slip of paper in my cabin showing the purchase the records that both guest services and the casino cashier have are showing that I only purchased $2740. I have all of my emails showing the various transactions purchasing the chips that I can show guest services and I also took a screen shot off my itinerary the day prior to the cruise showing my total purchase of 522 $10 increments of chips that I presented to them. Guest services had me email them it so that they could send it along to their main office. I assume the issue with them also only seeing $5 of my onboard credit that I purchased, the missing specialty dinners and the missing credit for the spa appointment are all related. Regarding the last point, guest services told me to talk to the spa then the spa told me that I needed to talk to guest services since any pre purchase should have shown as a credit on my onboard account that the spa would then draw down from.

We’re currently on a 10 day Panama Canal cruise and unfortunately it’s been a mixed bag at best so far. Negatives: We didn’t receive acknowledgement for many internet pre purchases that we made including almost $2500 of casino chips, $50 of onboard credit, 2 specialty dinners and a spa appointment for my wife. I have gotten the dinners sorted out but I’m still waiting on resolution for the rest. The room that we booked for my mom is being used as a storage closet and was filled to almost the ceiling with toilet paper. That issue has since been resolved with her being moved to a different room. I’ve attached a pic. Positives: The food quality has been good and on par with previous cruises. The ship is well maintained in appearance. The staff as always has been friendly and helpful. Net/net, I am really hoping that the rest of the issues get resolved today otherwise I’m out several thousand dollars. I’ve already spent 4 hours with guest services and it feels more like a working vacation to this point.

I would be fine with paying a month early but wouldn’t do it for a cruise that was a year away from final payment. My in-laws have one coming up on May that they are going to pay to get the OBC. $100 for paying $1500 around 6 weeks early seems worth it imo.

Thanks! Too bad it excludes on board purchases or gifts/services otherwise I would buy on board credit for our cruise later this month.

I thought that I had read the TVs were upgraded to the new interactive ones (with no more DVD players in the rooms). I guess I'll find out in a few weeks. There are 4 sea days on our cruise so I can guarantee that there will be some time spent watching a couple of movies and NFL games (especially since it'll be during the fantasy playoffs).

We’re in the same boat with a complete lack of emails. No luck so far with being able to correct the issue. I’ve been relying on looking for $200 rates online and keeping up with threads like this to be aware of offers.

CCL's stock price is unfortunately more important to my decision making process about future HAL cruises than I wish it would be. The stock price is nothing more of the expected future value of a company's cash flow and profits and as such the going concern of the company can weigh heavily into the calculation. From comparing CCL's performance to the broader market or the cruise industry in particular I can get a sense of whether or not their lackluster performance is systemic and a reflection of the entire market, if it's more within the cruise industry or if there are potentially challenges that are more drastic with HAL's parent company. IMHO, CCL's stock price is getting to a level where I have to ask myself if HAL will be around for a future cruise that I might book in 2023/2024 or if could they be operating in perhaps a radically different fashion than current operations. My in-laws and their friends have a cruise next year and while they like to pay off their balances early I've suggested that they wait until the payment is due so that if a worst-case scenario of not only a bankruptcy but ceasing of operations did happen that they wouldn't be out much money. Maybe this is extreme but in general I'm not a fan of giving someone else my money before I'm contractually obligated to do so. Just my 2 cents and I appreciate that opinions can and do differ...